Sunday, 11 May 2014

In a list of things that you wouldn't put past Shiro, seducing a little girl would certainly be amongst them, and disturbingly it seems as if he's done just that as this week's The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behaviour begins.

Rewind a little and we find out that said little girl's confession of love originates from a slightly less disturbing place - having rescued a lost wallet on the street and handed it into the police, Shiro is met by a mother and her daughter to thank him for his kindness. The girl in question, Chizuru, takes rather a shine to Shiro - or more importantly the Pythagoras device he's currently building using spare bamboo. As the days pass, Chizuru helps Shiro with his project, ultimately leading to that awkward confession.

Rather than allow this worrying state of affairs continue, Mayumi decides to step in to dissuade this little girl, or at least convince her to reconsider - it seems that Chizuru has no intention of reneging on her interest in Shiro however, and gentle persuasion turns into a full-on argument that ends with Mayumi making the little girl cry. In light of this, it's hardly surprising that Chizuru doesn't turn up over the coming days, but when she goes missing completely it becomes clear that this innocent exchange has hit a rather more raw nerve that simply the girl's interest in Shiro.

This wasn't really The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behaviour at its best in terms of its comedy, but the shift in its story-telling was at least interesting if not entirely successfully - the episode had its funny moments, and its tale was simple but reasonably engaging to keep the series ticking over without providing anything all that memorable or spectacular... not that this is entirely a bad thing for a comedy series that is never going to be hilarious week in, week out.